Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It applies at this stage too because of the medical evaluation provision. I would therefore like to speak to it at this stage. The figure of 1% of the population equates to 46,000 people. Many of these people may not know they are intersex. The condition varies. In terms of a medical and psychiatric evaluation, the terminology is not applicable to intersex people. They have not been properly considered in the drafting of this Bill. The psychiatrist's professional opinion is entirely irrelevant to intersex people. There are also questions about whether an endocrinologist is relevant as some intersex conditions require medical assistance but others do not.

What consultation was carried out with intersex people when drafting this Bill? I have no formal or expert knowledge on this issue. However, I am wondering about what has been done. Have intersex people been asked what they think the Government should be doing? There are no advocacy groups in Ireland for intersex people. Transgender Equality Network Ireland, TENI, does a bit of work on this issue but its capacity is limited. It would have been necessary to go abroad to have carried out proper consultation with professional organisations.

I also wish to speak to amendment No. 30 on how intersex people are classified in passports. Many intersex people would prefer that their birth certificate would accurately reflect the biological facts of their birth, that is, they were not born as strictly male or female but instead as an unspecified or intersex person. An X-marker would, therefore, be more accurate. There is no provision at all for this, which is now quite normal in countries such as Australia and Germany. The gender is marked as X where a person falls into the intersex category. In this Bill, the civil registration process does not take this into account.

What has the Government done to establish the needs of intersex people? We are talking about 1% of the population. This is a large percentage. Some 46,000 people is a huge number. I do not think for one minute that that number of people are even aware of it. However, it is quite something for them when they become aware that they are not accommodated in the law.